On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 02:29:42 +0200 Victor Stinner <vstin...@redhat.com> wrote: > >> Last year, I gave a talk at the Language Summit (during Pycon) to > >> explain that CPython should become 2x faster to remain competitive. > >> IMHO all attempts to optimize Python (CPython forks) have failed > >> because they have been blocked by the C API which implies strict > >> constraints. > > > > Well, that's your opinion, but did you prove it? > > I discussed with many Python developers who agree with me that the C API > blocked CPython forks. For example, I heard that Pyston was very fast and > very promising before starting to support the C API.
What exactly in the C API made it slow or non-promising? > The C API requires that your implementations make almost all the same > design choices that CPython made 25 years ago (C structures, memory > allocators, reference couting, specific GC implementation, GIL, etc.). Yes, but those choices are not necessarily bad. > Multiple PyPy developers told me that cpyext remains a blocker issue to use > PyPy. Probably, but we're talking about speeding up CPython here, right? If we're talking about making more C extensions PyPy-compatible, that's a different discussion, and one where I think Stefan is right that we should push people towards Cython and alternatives, rather than direct use of the C API (which people often fail to use correctly, in my experience). But the C API is still useful for specialized uses, *including* for development tools such as Cython. > Oh, by the way, I will not promise anything about any potential performance > gain. When I write "2x faster", I mean that our current approach for > optimization failed to make Python 2x faster over the last 10 years. Python > 3 is more or less as fast, or a little bit faster, than Python 2. But > Python 2 must not be used as an example of performance. People hesitate > between Go, Javascript and Python. And Python is not the winner in term of > performance. I agree about the overall diagnosis. I just disagree that changing the C API will open up easy optimization opportunities. Actually I'd like to see a list of optimizations that you think are held up by the C API. > I have to confess that helping Larry is part of my overall plan. Which is why I'd like to see Larry chime in here. Regards Antoine. _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
